The best exercises for muscle growth are ones that require you to use multiple joints. Squats, cleans, deadlifts and bench presses are all very effective at helping your muscles get bigger, and for toning your entire body.
To grow muscles, you should lift enough weight for actual muscle fiber tearing to occur. For most people, this means lifting about 65-85 percent of what you could normally lift only one time. This is called your "one rep max" or "1RM".
If you can bench press 100 pounds, then your weight for increasing the size of your chest muscles would be 65-85 pounds. Most people can lift 65-85 percent for 8-12 repetitions.
Your muscles need a significant amount of time under tension, about 60 seconds, for actual muscle tearing to occur. Try at least three to six sets for each exercise, 8-12, reps. Each set should include one to two minutes of recovery for the muscle group you are working. If you stress or tear a muscle every day, your body will not have enough time to repair the muscle fibers, resulting in uncomfortable levels of soreness, low muscle growth and joint injury. So give your muscles 2-3 days of recovery before re-stimulating those fibers again. Eating a well balanced diet is also essential.
The best strategy to growing muscle is to stress it, allow it to recover while eating enough healthy food to feed the new muscle, and repeat. With this method, you can safely build one to two pounds of muscle each week. And since muscle takes up much less room than fat, those pounds will look lean.
FitFlax with flax seed and chia seeds, and FlaxVibrance with lignans, are deliciously healthy choices to help boost your diet and immune system. Enjoy the benefit of flax seed and the benefit of chia seeds with FitFlax.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Do The Dog
The Downward-Facing Dog Pose is a yoga pose that is extremely beneficial for runners.
Runners often experience sore feet, bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings and hips. Others suffer joint pain, back problems, muscle pulls, tendinitis, and strains and sprains. Yoga helps increase range of motion, agility, flexibility, lung capacity, endurance and strength.
In Downward-Facing Dog Pose, your body forms a triangular pyramidal shape. The posture resembles a dog stretching after a nap. Do the Downward Facing Dog Pose as a warm-up of your muscles at the beginning of yoga practice. In many styles of yoga, this posture is repeated many times during any given yoga class. It provides a transition between poses. For many it is the first pose they learn as they begin to do yoga. Because the head is lower than the pelvis this pose is often classified as an inversion posture.
Begin from a position of all fours, lift your buttocks up toward the ceiling. Elongate your spine, and straighten your knees, and push your heels toward the floor as much as you can without forcing. Lift your wrists. Move the abdominal muscles in and keep them firm; drop your head toward the floor and let it hang loosely. Release after three breaths.
In the pose your body is in an inverted “V” shape with your sitting bones rolling up toward the ceiling. Lengthen your spine so that your tailbone extends up and away from the back of your pelvis. Aim your chest to your knees with an extended spine. Keep your arms and legs straight, lifting up your kneecaps with your quadriceps with perfectly straight legs. Your torso goes toward your legs so the head hangs freely and more toward the floor.
As your hamstrings become more stretched with practice, you should be able to get the heels on the floor without losing the spinal extension. Do not worry if your heels do yet not reach the floor. Keep the feet parallel and work on getting weight on the back part of the ball of your foot.
As you work in the pose, continually observe the distribution of your weight on each part of your feet, on your hands and your fingers. Keep equal weight on both sides of the body and in all parts of hand or foot.
In the beginning, place a block on its side under each hand as you do the pose. You will be able to feel a grounding of your heels more easily. This variation takes weight out of your arms and shoulders and allows you to be much more present in your legs in the pose. This variation is especially good if you are suffering from a hand, arm, or shoulder injury since it takes some weight out of those areas.
Over time extend the time in which you hold this pose. As you become able to work in the pose for longer periods of time you will gain in strength and in stretch.
Eventually you should be able to hold and continually work in the pose for at least five minutes.
SmartToes Toe Stretchers and Straightener unique design are great for stretching your hamstrings, and provide overall relief for stressed out feet.
SmartSole Exercise Insole to help you burn more calories with every step and turn your everyday footwear into toning shoes.
SmartSole and SmartToes are also available at Duane Reade.
Runners often experience sore feet, bad backs and knees, tight hamstrings and hips. Others suffer joint pain, back problems, muscle pulls, tendinitis, and strains and sprains. Yoga helps increase range of motion, agility, flexibility, lung capacity, endurance and strength.
In Downward-Facing Dog Pose, your body forms a triangular pyramidal shape. The posture resembles a dog stretching after a nap. Do the Downward Facing Dog Pose as a warm-up of your muscles at the beginning of yoga practice. In many styles of yoga, this posture is repeated many times during any given yoga class. It provides a transition between poses. For many it is the first pose they learn as they begin to do yoga. Because the head is lower than the pelvis this pose is often classified as an inversion posture.
Begin from a position of all fours, lift your buttocks up toward the ceiling. Elongate your spine, and straighten your knees, and push your heels toward the floor as much as you can without forcing. Lift your wrists. Move the abdominal muscles in and keep them firm; drop your head toward the floor and let it hang loosely. Release after three breaths.
In the pose your body is in an inverted “V” shape with your sitting bones rolling up toward the ceiling. Lengthen your spine so that your tailbone extends up and away from the back of your pelvis. Aim your chest to your knees with an extended spine. Keep your arms and legs straight, lifting up your kneecaps with your quadriceps with perfectly straight legs. Your torso goes toward your legs so the head hangs freely and more toward the floor.
As your hamstrings become more stretched with practice, you should be able to get the heels on the floor without losing the spinal extension. Do not worry if your heels do yet not reach the floor. Keep the feet parallel and work on getting weight on the back part of the ball of your foot.
As you work in the pose, continually observe the distribution of your weight on each part of your feet, on your hands and your fingers. Keep equal weight on both sides of the body and in all parts of hand or foot.
In the beginning, place a block on its side under each hand as you do the pose. You will be able to feel a grounding of your heels more easily. This variation takes weight out of your arms and shoulders and allows you to be much more present in your legs in the pose. This variation is especially good if you are suffering from a hand, arm, or shoulder injury since it takes some weight out of those areas.
Over time extend the time in which you hold this pose. As you become able to work in the pose for longer periods of time you will gain in strength and in stretch.
Eventually you should be able to hold and continually work in the pose for at least five minutes.
SmartToes Toe Stretchers and Straightener unique design are great for stretching your hamstrings, and provide overall relief for stressed out feet.
SmartSole Exercise Insole to help you burn more calories with every step and turn your everyday footwear into toning shoes.
SmartSole and SmartToes are also available at Duane Reade.
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